Deal watch: Trilliant to work on smart grid pilot with Vietnam’s EVN HCMC

US smart grid communication company Trilliant has won a pilot smart grid project with Vietnamese power company EVN HCMC.

The two sides were introduced by the US Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) during a reverse trade mission to the United States for Vietnamese energy leaders in July, confirmed Clark Jennings, chief of staff at the agency.

The contract, which was signed this week, will see Trilliant supporting EVN's smart grid pilot project in Ho Chi Minh City to demonstrate the application of smart grid platform technology to help deliver energy efficiency in order to offset some of the demand growth, while improving reliability and operational benefits to customers.

Delivering energy efficiency

Tran Khiem Tuan, deputy general director of EVN HCMC, said: “We look forward to using this pilot project to ultimately help us further deliver energy efficiency and reliability benefits to our customers.”

Bryan Spear, managing director for Asia Pacific, at Trilliant, said: “EVN HCMC is an innovative utility with unique challenges, and we are honored to assist in their efforts to build a smarter energy infrastructure to help the country accelerate economic growth more sustainably for its citizens.”

Vietnam grid reform

The World Bank recently approved US$500 million funding to work with the Government of Vietnam to improve the capacity, efficiency and reliability of electric infrastructure in areas that are key to the country’s economic development.

In addition to using the funding to improve the country’s transmission infrastructure, the project will support smart grid technologies for monitoring, control and protecting critical assets to improve reliability and reduce outages.